Hac Boston

From HaskellWiki

The Haskell Hackathon is an international, grassroots collaborative coding festival with a simple focus: build and improve Haskell libraries, tools, and infrastructure.

Hac Boston will be held August 1 to 3, 2014 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Building 46, 3rd Floor Atrium. It is open to all — you do not have to be a Haskell guru to attend. All you need is a basic knowledge of Haskell, a willingness to learn, and a project you're excited to help with (or a project of your own to work on).

There will be lots of hacking, some talks, good food, and, of course, fun!

1 Registration

We have room for approximately 80 people, and have just under 1 person registered so far. If you plan to be in the area and are thinking about attending, please register. Registration is free, and open to everyone. If you like, you can also
list yourself as an attendee (TODO update atendees). Then you might want to visit

2 Sponsors

3 Dates and Times

The hackathon will run from August 1 to 3, 2014, at the following times:

Date

Day

Times

Aug 1

Friday

17:00 to 22:00

Aug 2

Saturday

09:00 to 22:00

Aug 3

Sunday

09:00 to 17:00

There will probably be some talks (TODO update talks) Saturday afternoon.

Although the hackathon won't officially kick off until 5:00pm on Friday, you are welcome to arrive Friday morning if it makes for easier travel.

4 Food

(TODO Update food)

Day

Time

Food

Friday

06:30

Pizza and Salad

Saturday

09:30

Breakfast (Bacon, Eggs, Veggie option)

Saturday

12:30

Lunch (Sandwiches, chips, salad)

Saturday

16:00

Presentations and talks (no dinner)

Sunday

10:30

Brunch

5 Before you arrive

Pick out a couple of projects to work on and familiarise yourself with them, or bring your own project(s) to work on. See the projects page for a list of projects people plan to work on. If you plan to work on your own project, be sure to list it on the projects page and set up a public repository if you don't already have one, so that other people can help hack on your project.

Install an up to date Haskell toolchain: at least ghc and cabal-install. If you don't already have these installed (or need to install from scratch on the laptop you're bringing), the easiest way is probably to install the Haskell Platform.

6 Talks

If you'd be interested in giving a short (15-20 minute) talk, put your name and the subject of your talk on the talks page. There will be a projector and whiteboard available.

8.2 By train

Amtrak serves Boston South Station, station code BOS. Service from cities in the Northeast is available on both the Northeast Regional train and the marginally faster Acela Express. These trains also stop at Boston Back Bay (BBY). South Station is the better choice if taking transit to MIT, but Back Bay is closer for walking.

From certain points in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, you can take MBTA commuter rail, which arrives at South Station or North Station.

8.3 By bus

9 Getting to MIT

9.1 By human power

Cambridge is a very walkable city. It is feasible to walk to MIT from many points in Cambridge, Boston, and Brookline. Cambridge is also very bikeable, but maybe not in January.

9.2 By public transit

MIT is close to Kendall Station on the Red Line subway. The Red Line connects to Boston South Station (and its rail and bus terminals) and the rest of the MBTA rapid transit network. MIT is also served by MBTA buses. Google Maps can plan rail and bus trips.

From the Kendall stop on the Red Line, you will need to make your way to Building 46. You'll exit the subway station on Main St, and you want to walk West for a few blocks. For reference, the Marriott and other large buildings are arranged around a courtyard north of Main St. Building 46 is the large boat-shaped building at the corner of Main St. and Vassar St.. Take the entrance on either Main St. or Vassar St. and proceed to the third floor. The local inhabitants are friendly and will be happy to point you in the right direction if you get lost.